Last weekend, my wife and I finally got a sitter and went to see the final Harry Potter movie. It was an awesome, awesome movie, but my favorite piece of dialog went something like this:

"Okay. We're going in."

"Just like that? Without a plan?"

"When have any of our plans ever worked?"

Finally - something in Harry Potter that I can truly relate to!

I'm unlikely to ever be called on to do anything heroic. I'm so klutzy that if I DID have access to a magic wand, I'd shoot myself in the ear with a laser beam or something. And if I was faced with an angry, evil, noseless villain like Whatz His Face, I'd run screaming into the woods so fast I'd leave a flame trail, blubbering in terror and probably peeing myself.

But Harry had a point when he alluded to the perils of over-planning. I've done projects and lessons with my classes over the years that involved weeks or months of planning, which went splendidly. I've also has many which fell apart on contact with real - as opposed to theoretical - students. Whether or not I realize it as I'm planning a lesson, a lot of the time, I'm counting on my students to react in a predictable and logical fashion, which - in real life - they often refuse to do.